Monday, March 3, 2014

Custom made

– How old jewellery can be turned into a

stunning new ring

Most of my work is custom made – for customers, who have a
jewellery dream which can’t be bought in normal shops. They ask me to
create that extra personal piece of jewellery, maybe even recycling old,
beloved, but aesthetically less pleasing heirlooms.

Here is an example of how an old ring of my customer Louise’s much
loved mother was turned into a new ring which reflects my customers
taste and personality.

My customer Louise brought me a simple ring with a 40’s design
featuring a large, and very beautiful blue gem. It had been worn every
day by her mother and showed the signs of it: the facets were ground
smooth and the stone had lost its lustre. However, when I removed it
from its setting and turned it over, a whole new gem showed itself to
us:

Suddenly the facets were crisp and new and if set upside down in the
new piece, this would become a very unusual ring with a uniquely cut
gem.

I set about to sketching designs which would showcase this lovely
stone, while reusing the gold of the original ring. My customer brought
more inherited gold than was needed, especially since she preferred a
combination of silver with only accents of gold.

I chose to melt everything in one bowl

And cast it into a sheet

Which was milled down to a more useful dimension

A piece of thick-walled tubing served as the base of the setting

It was shaped oval and tapered

And the gold was shaped into a brim to rest on top of it, ready to enfold the gem

It is a trademark of mine to place oval stones diagonally on the finger, and so I filed the bottom of the setting accordingly

Now for the ring shank: A piece of oval silver wire was first milled stepwise smaller and smaller and then filed smoothly tapered

By melting the tip of it, a delicious drop emerged and served as the delicate starting point of the tendril, smoothing itself around the base of the setting

After much adjusting, the shape was right

And the ring and setting were soldered together

Another trademark of mine is the use of bubbles. I love them, because they lend life to the design – much like champagne wouldn’t be the same without its lively bubbles.

The spheres are created by melting tiny pieces of gold, which naturally draws up on to itself in order to find its new shape

Now I arranged the bubbles. This stage takes time and an artistic eye. My designs are fluid and asymmetrical, but never out of balance. The bubbles play a vital role in balancing out the design correctlyand often it takes quite a bit of fiddling around before I am satisfied by the arrangement

The last solder is done; the ring has soaked in hot acid to remove stains from the process and has had its initial polish. Now for adjusting the setting in order to fit the stone perfectly. With a setting burr I grind a seat for the stone

And repeatedly test if it fits without rocking

Perfect fit! Now I carefully push the brim of the gold over the edge of the stone in order to hold it securely

A small, green tzavorite garnet is to play the role as the cheeky companion of the lead actor and so I grind a seat for it into one of the larger bubbles

And set the vivid gem

After a last, thorough polish, here is the result, baptized “Sing Blue Silver”